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Opinion Contributor

Republicans need to go negative

Mitt Romney wasn't able to serve as a true Republican foil to the president, author says. | AP Photo

• Amnesty for illegal immigrants should not be easily granted – if at all – because we are a nation of laws, and ignoring laws undermines our system of government. What’s more, other societies are different and it is hard to assimilate so many people into our culture so quickly.

• New spending by Obama on education won’t be any more helpful than past spending.

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• Obama’s defense of Social Security and Medicare will destroy both. Benefits must be cut– and not just for the wealthy – if the programs are to survive.

• Obama’s tax increases on the wealthy sap the initiative of the most productive members of society while forcing them to shelter their money in unproductive ways. If Obama had tried to stimulate the economy by reducing taxes further instead of “not wasting a crisis” and throwing money around, the economy would be in better shape.

• Well-meaning and pleasant-sounding Obama “investments” are an expansion of government that steals money from the private sector and uses it in unproductive ways.

• Obamacare’s guarantee of coverage will lead to socialized medicine that will ruin today’s high standard of care and deny its benefits to our children. And it’s a major new entitlement that enlarges the culture of dependency on government.

• And, no matter how many children Obama appears with at the White House, the Second Amendment helps guarantee freedom, and curtailing gun rights increases the rule of the government over individual lives. And in a country already awash in guns, law-abiding citizens need more bullets, not fewer.

Now that’s a solid roster of negativity.

These are tough positions to take. But if they are explained as objections to a left-wing philosophy that is curbing freedom and prosperity for all, they will not seem so objectionable.

Republicans love to look longingly to Ronald Reagan, wishing he’d return in the person of some living politician to save the party and the nation.

Reagan today is viewed as kind of an avuncular figure who meant well, even if some disagreed with him.

What even Republicans forget is that before rising to the presidency, Reagan was often portrayed and perceived as a lunatic right wing ideologue who said mean things and might get us into a war.

People don’t remember how unusual it was then to openly proclaim conservative values without worrying about seeming un-hip and heartless.

Today’s Republicans have forgotten about Reagan’s courage. And so they have none of their own.

Keith Koffler, who covered the White House as a reporter for CongressDaily and Roll Call, is editor of the website White House Dossier.